‘Buckaroo’ saddles up for NYFF

Festival sets sidebar programs

The New York Film Festival continues to round out the ancillary programming for its 2011 edition, setting the lineup for the avant-garde showcase as well as including a Kevin Smith-curated screening of “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension.”

Roster for the fest’s HBO Films Directors Dialogues also has been nailed down, with talks skedded with Abel Ferrera (“4:44: Last Day on Earth”), Wim Wenders (“Pina”), Julia Loktev (“The Loneliest Planet”) and Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (“Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory”), all screening films at the fest.

W.D. Richter’s 1984 pic “Buckaroo Banzai” is shown as part of a series called “Kevin Smith’s SMoviola,” now to be a continuing series of Smith-selected pics with filmmakers and stars of the films in attendance. “Buckaroo” cast members Peter Weller and John Lithgow are set for the Oct. 15 screening.

Also on tap for NYFF is the 15th annual “Views From the Avant-Garde” series, expanding to a four-night slate (Oct. 7-10) that includes works by James Benning, Kevin Jerome Everson, George Kuchar, Ben Rivers and Daniel Eisenberg, along with a screening of “John Zorn: A Film in 15 Scenes.”